Hunger in Appalachia: Tim Barrus: New York Times
Inspirational films tell us to climb every mountain. Try climbing legislative mountains that would bring food to Appalachia. I live in Appalachia. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes this part of the country, and southern Ohio as — Appalachia — and lists it as distressed. Terminology code for the words hopelessness and hunger.
At a time when the economy is booming, there is no booming for us. We remain forgotten. We are reminders that capitalism doesn’t work for everyone.
We are not statistics. We need voices that will speak out. All these people whose hearts are in the right place. We need them to remind America of the word hunger. It is not a word America wants to hear. It is not a word the White House chef wants to hear. I have never met a chef. Hunger is not a word the Bureau of Labor Statistics wants to hear. So they color Appalachia as distressed.
We need people with guts enough to say there is hunger in America. SNAP was the food stamp program. Trump essentially ended it because he loathes us. His political rhetoric is no longer taken as the truth in Appalachia. The reason we don’t vote is because we have seen social programs like SNAP come and go. Hunger remains the bigger shark that has always eaten us alive. There is an even bigger anguish. It is called despondency. I never bought into the vacuum of it. The numbness. The paralysis. The anesthesia of a deadness that transcends politics.
We accept our fate. I do. The indisposition hunger facilitates is a contagion like a terminal disease. HIV and addiction kills us. So does hunger. Survival and insight are not synonymous.